Well I have wanted to paint the interior but when I started to think about it there are some items I should complete first. One item is the bracket that holds the fuel valve in place. I put this off waiting to get the Andair valve. Well it came in several weeks ago. I stated by designing the bracket, I work slowly so this took some time. I cut the stock valve in half and trimmed it to length to fit between the longeron and the console brace. I then cut the 1” hole in the console cover and after clamping the brackets in place I drilled the 3 holes for AN3 bolts that will hold the valve in place. With the valve clecoed to the bracket I clamped the bracket to the console brace and the longeron and drilled holes to rivet the bracket in place. I test fit everything with things clecoed in place and all was well so I riveted the bracket to the console brace and longeron, and did one more test fit with the cover in place and it looks nice.
With this done I stared to think about cleaning the cockpit to ready for paint. Well you have to take thing out for that. It was then that I realized that I should not have riveted the fuel valve bracket to the longeron. Essentially I took the removable console brace and made it immobile. I looked at the plans (what a concept) and saw that the stock valve calls for #8 flat head screw to attach the bracket to the longeron. I will fix this tomorrow.
